Steve Hutchinson: All the comforts of home

Steve Hutchinson remembers exactly what he was thinking a year ago as the Vikings prepared to report to training camp:

"You think we could bump it back a month?"

The Pro Bowl left guard had been through a five-month whirlwind — an appearance in the Super Bowl with Seattle; the Seahawks' surprise decision to place the less-restrictive transition tag on him; his signing a seven-year, $49 million offer sheet with the Vikings; and a ruling that the "poison pill" language inserted in the offer was legal.

And that doesn't take into account that Hutchinson — a "creature of habit" — had to adapt to a new metro area and a new team.

"I've got to go fishing or something," Hutchinson recalls thinking. "I haven't done anything yet."

When the Vikings report to Mankato on Wednesday, Hutchinson should have no such concerns. Everything that was new -- from the drive to Mankato to the location of the coffee pot at Winter Park -- is now familiar. Perhaps best of all, Hutchinson was able to spend the offseason in relative obscurity, playing golf with his neighbor, former Viking John Randle, and fishing from his new boat.

"I've sensed it and I've seen it," Vikings coach Brad Childress said of Hutchinson's increased comfort level. "I think it's by virtue of the fact that he makes his home here in the offseason. He spends time in our weight room. He spends time with our coaches."

Hutchinson, who will turn 30 in November, calls the downtime key. "I've had six months of no football now and stayed here," he said. "I haven't traveled much, didn't have to sell a house. ... I'd say I'm a lot more comfortable and satisfied now than I was last year."

Away from the job

Last month, Hutchinson relaxed at the kitchen table in his home in the western suburbs. His wife, Landyn, was nearby, at times getting up to tend to the couple's two children — Lily, who turns 3 next month, and Luke, who was born in March.

It was not the sometimes ornery Hutchinson seen in the locker room. That Hutchinson often tried to keep his answers short and vanilla; this Hutchinson first gave a tour of his home and then provided thoughtful and thorough responses, admitting to often being "too sarcastic."

Hutchinson, whose father was a Florida police officer for 25 years, admits that rarely revealing this side of himself leaves many thinking he's nothing more than a 6-5, 313-pound ogre.

And he's OK with that.

"When I step through those doors, whether it be in Seattle or here, I'm at work," Hutchinson said. "People say all the time, 'I didn't know you talked,' or 'I didn't know you joked around.' Well, I don't do that kind of stuff at work."

That also comes from playing for no-nonsense coaches in Lloyd Carr at Michigan, then Seattle’s Mike Holmgren and Childress in the NFL. Their message is simple: We’ll take care of the media, you take care of playing.

"I'm not going to be the guy to go to if you're looking for someone to run his mouth and be front page on profootballtalk.com or in the newspaper," Hutchinson said. "There are plenty of guys in the league that will be happy to do that. ... My job is to go out there, put my left hand down on the ground and play on Sunday."

Hutchinson leaves his football persona behind on the drive home. In fact, one reason he lives about a half-hour from the Vikings' facility in Eden Prairie — he lived about the same distance from the Seahawks' headquarters — is so he can wind down.

At home Hutchinson rarely talks about football, loves to watch "Survivor" and "Lost" and helps take care of Lily and Luke.

That doting father is the person Landyn knows best. Steve and Landyn are both from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and they met in the eighth grade. They began dating in high school and, except for a brief breakup in college (he was a football star at Michigan, and she attended Florida Atlantic), have been together since.

"I get that all the time," Landyn said when asked about Steve. "I get, 'Is he as mean and nasty as they say?' He definitely turns it off. ... I know [the ornery] Steve Hutchinson just maybe from what I read about or overhearing him talk or even like talking to you today. But I know this Steve, who I've known for 15, 16 years. That's who I want to know, I guess. But I'm proud of him."

A split in Seattle

Hutchinson has been selected to play in the past four Pro Bowls, is a three-time All-Pro selection and helped establish a new financial market for NFL guards. Yet he would prefer to remain in the background.

"One thing you can say about him is he's very humble," said Randle, who played with Hutchinson in Seattle. "Most players look for [attention]. They want to be focused on. He's not that type of guy."

Said Hutchinson: "When it's about me, I don't want to talk about it. Not because I don't want anybody to know about me. I just don't like being the center of attention."

Hutchinson didn't have much of a choice last year after what appeared to be a bitter split with the Seahawks. He expected Seattle to put the franchise tag on him, and Holmgren was fuming when his star offensive lineman got away.

The Seahawks, much to Holmgren's dismay, placed the transition tag on Hutchinson, assuming they would be able to retain him. But the Vikings and Hutchinson's agent, Tom Condon, got creative and inserted a clause that required Hutchinson to have the highest average annual salary of any offensive lineman on his team in 2006 -- otherwise, the entire contract would become guaranteed. The Seahawks, who already were paying left tackle Walter Jones an average of $500,000 more than Hutchinson would have made, took the matter before a special master but lost.

Hutchinson still doesn't want to get into particulars of what happened, but he did say that he broke the ice with Holmgren shortly after last season.

"I was talking to the Seahawks equipment manager in his office and Holmgren came in," Hutchinson said. "He had him on speaker phone, and I had a couple-minute conversation with him. It was good. That was probably the first conversation that had nothing to do with how mad he was at me or at my representation or my situation. And that was almost a year."

Added Landyn: "I think he just loved you so much that he was just mad at the situation."

A rough beginning

Hutchinson also had reason to be mad, or at least frustrated, about his situation with the Vikings last year. After beating the Seahawks on Oct. 22 and improving to 4-2, the team won only two of its final 10 games.

"The way the season went it was hard on him," Randle said. "We'd go out and sit and talk and I could see the way he felt, what he was going through, how tough it was. All I could do was just be there for him. I'd just tell him, 'You know what? You have to pick yourself back up and continue the next week.'"

The Vikings signed several players in free agency in March 2006, including Hutchinson, raising expectations for Childress' first season.

"Everybody had really high hopes," Hutchinson said. "The fans, media, everybody. What a lot of people don't realize about this game is a lot of things have to be in place in order to be successful. You can be as optimistic as you want, but it's going to take more than a couple minicamps and a training camp to get all of those things. ... We had a lot of new guys who had never played with each other."

Although he was selected to the Pro Bowl and was part of a line that helped running back Chester Taylor rush for 1,216 yards, better things are expected from Hutchinson this season.

"I think he'd be the first to admit he's got room to improve," Childress said. "The improvement will come in terms of feeling more comfortable. ... We may have called [something a] 'scoop.' They might have called it 'slip.' Those things have got to fall off your lips, whether you're communicating to your left tackle or communicating to your center. Everything is happening at such warp speed. I think that's probably where the comfort level lies."

And much to Childress' delight, Hutchinson's comfort level in Minnesota has grown substantially since last July.

Staff Writer Kevin Seifert contributed to this story.

Judd Zulgad • jzulgad@startribune.com